NASCAR officials are considering alterations to its overtime finish procedures at restrictor-plate tracks, potentially making a rules change ahead of this weekend's events at Talladega Superspeedway.
Steve O'Donnell, NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer, mentioned the possibility Monday morning during a semi-weekly competition debrief with NASCAR.com.
Drivers said they had discussions with NASCAR officials about potential tweaks for Talladega and sister track Daytona International Speedway, where restrictor plates limit horsepower and speeds, often keeping the field in tightly knit packs. To reduce the potential for late-race carnage, one option considered was reducing the number of possible attempts for a green-white-checkered overtime finish from its current maximum of three.
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Those rules may be in place in time for Sunday's CampingWorld.com 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM), the sixth of 10 races in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs.
"We are looking at the potential for a procedural change, and that would be it," O'Donnell said. "I know there was talk about some other things we may be looking at from a race car perspective, but that's not the case. Still in some final discussions with the industry regarding the green-white-checker procedure, so we expect to have something out by the latest, Wednesday of this week heading into Talladega."
Any potential change would mark the first major alteration of the green-white-checkered rules since their debut in 2004. O'Donnell said many factors, including the racing history at Talladega, would be considered before making a shift in procedures.
"I think you just look at the race track and the competitors heading in, some of the historicals we've seen," O'Donnell said. "We're going to make our best effort, regardless, to finish a race under green and I think you've seen that. I think in the last 40 to 42 races, we've only seen six races where there have been more than one attempt, so we're looking at all the data to see what we can find out, but ultimately our job and what we want to see is for the race to finish under green-flag conditions."
One change that will certainly be in effect for this weekend is the addition of more energy-absorbing walls at Talladega. The track announced Oct. 8 that all exterior and interior retaining walls at the 2.66-mile facility were now protected by the SAFER (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction) barrier.
Several tracks have made similar safety measures in the wake of Kyle Busch's severe crash in the NASCAR XFINITY Series opener at Daytona in February.
"Talladega's added over 8,000 feet of SAFER barriers, which is terrific," O'Donnell said. "What we've seen really from the entire industry coming out of Daytona, and we've said this, that we're going to work with the tracks to expedite all the SAFER barriers at each of the tracks. We've seen that. We've seen the track operators really step up, especially those that have had one event early on and then had a fall event. They've made a number of changes.
"Really pleased with the progress all the tracks have made. We'll continue to see that through the end of this season and certainly as we head into '16, so I think the message is clear of what we expect and the competitors expect, and I think the tracks are delivering on those expectations each and every race now."
O'Donnell also put a wrap on the most recent race weekend at Kansas Speedway, which was capped by Joey Logano's late-race contact with Matt Kenseth on the way to victory in the Hollywood Casino 400. O'Donnell chalked the run-in to "just some good hard racing" in a high-pressure situation, with Logano trying to deny his rival an automatic berth in the Chase's next round.
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Both drivers had strong words for each other during post-race interviews, but nothing became physical between the two or their teams. O'Donnell said he didn't expect retaliation in the weeks ahead, and that NASCAR would only intervene if the conflict potentially escalated.
"Ultimately, we like to leave it in the drivers' hands to work things out. These guys race each other week in and week out. It's a long season and tend to work it out among themselves. If we have to, though, we will get involved and we'll sit down with the drivers and make sure that they're on the same page and we don't see any retaliatory events on the race track. In this case, I think Matt and Joey will talk and if not, if both of those guys or one says, 'hey, I need you guys to come in and bring us together,' we'll do that. But certainly expect those guys to work it out."